The age of Eternals is here. The Chloe Zhao-directed MCU epic just hit theaters and has the world talking about it, for better or worse. The film has received a largely lackluster critical response, becoming Marvel Studio's lowest-ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoes.
The divisive nature of the project has gotten a lot of people talking. Review bombs hit Eternals hard leading up to its release, and some are quite mad at the movie for featuring Marvel Studios' first openly gay hero in Phastos.
Another first for the project is its introduction of sex scenes within the MCU. Chloé Zhao has spoken on this movie having the first true love story of the franchise, and that is evident in Ikaris and Sersi's late-night escapade in the Babylonian desert.
This carnal outing, along with Phastos' sexuality, has gotten the film in some hot water internationally. Eternals has been banned in certain markets because of this material with Disney denying requests to censor the project. Well, it seems an edited version of the film will see the light of day in some markets, but not others.
Eternals Gets Censored
According to Deadline, an edited version of Eternals will release in various middle eastern markets like Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. This censored cut will remove any instances of intimacy, whether they be hetero or gay. This practice is common in these markets.
Eternals is in theaters now in the U.S. and many foreign markets.
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
While it is a bummer that Disney has to edit the film to work in some markets, it is not as bad as it seems. Some will look at this headline, see it as the House of Mouse caving into a certain part of the world, and take to their Twitter accounts. But that isn't necessarily the case here.
Marvel Studios has already said it will not bend to a few requests of extreme censorship on the project. In places like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman, the studio was asked to make further cuts not only pertaining to the intimacy shown in the film, thus those nations were not issued distribution certificates.
Other middle eastern countries like Kuwait and Qatar have problems with depictions of prophets, gods, and other theological beings, so that is the reason the film will not be playing there.
Sure, it sucks that Chloe Zhao's intended vision is not going to be shown in some places. On a positive note, fans will at least get to enjoy 99.9% of the film that audiences are eating up in the rest of the world.
Eternals is already well on its way to being a box office hit, so these cuts and hold-outs are just bumps in the grand scheme of things for Marvel.
